Title: The Impact of Genetics on the Conservation of Malagasy Lemur Species
Abstract: The enormous destruction of natural habitats in Madagascar by humans forces us to initiate programmes for the conservation of its endangered species, such as the lemurs. At present, our knowledge of the population biology of these species is rather limited and this study has, therefore, been undertaken to learn more about the genetics of lemurs. In the past, conservation biology has been influenced mainly by ecology, but the necessity of genetic approaches has been widely recognized during the last 15 years [1–5]. The structure of natural populations, e.g. the amount of genetic variability, the degree of genetic diversity among local populations and, of course, correlations between local environmental conditions and genetic variability should be known in order to optimize in situ and ex situ conservation programmes. Genetic studies can help to minimize the increase in inbreeding within breeding groups [6] and to preserve the genetic variability found in local natural populations [6, 7]. Of course, these ideas are only important if ex situ conservation is intended to be the basis of in situ programmes. If ex situ conservation is restricted to the breeding of species within zoological gardens in order to illustrate the problem of endangered species to the public, a mixture of populations adapted to different environmental conditions bears no risk, as long as the captive-bred individuals are kept in human care. If ex situ conservation programmes aim to release individuals into natural habitats, maladaptation of hybrid individuals can occur under natural conditions.
Publication Year: 1998
Publication Date: 1998-02-14
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 12
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